Winemaker Notes
Juicy blackberry, dark fruit, earthy aromatics. Lush, silky fruit on the palate, finishes with a structured and lingering finish with notes of cooking spices and berry cobbler.
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Gap's Crown is one of the vineyard jewels of Sonoma County. Aromatic and lush nose; spicy, ripe cherry and concentrated flavors.
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James Suckling
Lots of strawberry and cherry aromas with hints of bark and wet earth. Full body, chewy tannins and a savory finish. Black pepper undertone.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale ruby with a hint of purple in color, the 2014 Pinot Noir Gap’s Crown Vineyard has a wonderful intensity of crushed red currants and cranberry scents with hints of underbrush, lavender and mossy bark. Medium to full-bodied and packed with vibrant red berry and earth-inspired flavors, it has a solid backbone of fine tannins and great length.
Rating: 91+ -
Wine Enthusiast
Sizable tannins and oak make for a full-bodied experience that comes off closed and tight at first, the wine needing some time in the glass to unwind. With patience, it unpeels layers of soft, floral aromas and quiet notions of raspberry and strawberry.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
A vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.